Pitching with Just Your Arm in Baseball Causes Serious Problems

The biggest problem all young pitchers face is learning how to STOP PITCHING WITH JUST YOUR ARM. It is a major problem and is why the injury rates at the youth level are higher than at the professional level based on hours of exposure.

If a young pitcher is going to have a healthy long baseball career he must learn what it takes to stop pitching with just your arm and learn to throw with the entire body. The major problem with this development of youth pitchers to learn how to use the body is that most coaches do not know how to teach or develop this in the youth pitcher. On top of this the culture of the game is trending towards playing for games with more all season play.

In this article you will learn why you are pitching with just your arm and how to prevent it to save your pitching career.

Pitching with Just Your Arm Starts Here

What we as pitchers are dealing with here is that using the arm mainly to generate pitching velocity, is a natural human behavior. We as humans always find the easiest way to achieve the most reward. So if we continue to look at pitching in this light, we see a 5oz baseball as something not that threatening to our body. I mean think about it, my 96 year old grandmother can throw a baseball, but what if the ball weighed 60 pounds? My grandmother would probably tell me to get a life, because the weight of the ball has now become a threat to her physique. This is where you should experience an epiphany. What does the body do mechanically when it is under threat? It recruits more muscles to generate more power. Hence the essence of “Power Pitching.” To learn more about “Power Pitching” watch the video on 3X Pitching 101.

It is important for us Pitchers to constantly discipline ourselves to recruit more of our core muscles when pitching. This should be driven home everyday, within every drill, every lift and definitely every pitch. So to help you find the signs in your delivery that illustrate that you are using more arm than an equal balance of muscles from your entire body, I will describe those signs here.

List of Signs that you are using mainly your arm when pitching.

1. During leg lift you are leading with your shoulders instead of hips.

2. Your head is in front of your belt buckle during your stride..

3. Opening your hips before they travel down the hill.

4. Swinging your throwing arm way out of your glove and reaching ball to sky.

5. No separation in your back hip to back shoulder at front foot strike.

6. Poor pronation after ball release.

7. Short stride. Short drag line.

8. Rotator cuff pain. Long recovery time.

As pitchers, we all are guilty of performing a few of these bad habits every now and then. The questions is, are we aware of it when it is happening? If not, at least we have the last sign, number 8, when our body informs us that we are doing something wrong but sometimes this can be too late in the game. This is why we should always listen to our bodies. It is the best tool we have in coaching ourselves.

To prevent you, as a pitcher, from finding yourself under a 10 ton bag of ice because your arm is hanging, I would suggest you constantly evaluate, or have a coach evaluate your delivery for these 8 signs. If you need video analysis to help you with your evaluation, please visit our Video Analysis page or contact us.

The #1 Program for Develop the Healthy Total Body Pitcher

This program has helped tons of pitchers live the dream of throwing 90+mph and signing with a D1 University, getting drafted by a Major League Organization and making it back to Major League Baseball. Many scouts in all organizations of baseball have recommended this program to help young pitchers get to the 90+mph range to improve their value at the next level.

The reason the 3X Extreme Pitching Velocity Program works is because it is based off of science and it has been proven to develop the 90+mph fastball on thousands of pitchers. It isn’t rocket science or voodoo, it is the real deal! The program comes with a high level workload of drills, lifts and exercises scientifically programmed to enhance throwing speed on the mound while developing an efficient pitching delivery. The format of the 3X Pitching Velocity Program is similar to the same approach Olympic throwers have been using for decades to increase throwing velocity. This approach isn’t new to the sports world but it is new to baseball.

If you are serious about your career and are insanely driven to put yourself into an extremely small percentage of pitchers who are potential D1 prospects, top level draft picks or you just want to reach your potential on the mound then this program is the best chance you have to making your dreams come true.

Hey Brent
I meant to mention in my previous comments that without learning how to execute the proper series of sequenced, chained, reactive body movements being executed in their proper sequence and at the proper time the body will not function properly which leaves the arm to take on the physical brunt, task of the throwing movement which we do not want the arm to do.
Sports science research combined with your research and physical applications has brought to the table as to how the pitchers body in forward movement from the rubber should function properly and positively, {indifference} as to how the body does function {naturally} and {believe it or not,} {very negatively.} at the same time.

Hey Brent
How ya doin?
Detecting wrong non hip movement from the rubber.
I find that the easiest way to eyeball, detect wrong, first non hip movement from the rubber is to watch the stride foot and leg, 99/44/100 percent of aspiring pitchers at all levels will first lead the hips with their stride foot and leg momentarily leaving the hips in a state of limbo doing nothing until momentum and stride length finally pulls them along behind and in the process the whole series of sequenced chained reactive body movements are broken down which leaves the tension, strain and abuse built up during the body’s energy out put created from it’s throwing movement.
Don Ervin